THE WEDDING PACT (The O’Malleys #2) by Katee Robert-Review and Book Tour
THE WEDDING PACT
The O’Malleys #2
by Katee Robert
Genre: adult, contemporary, erotic , romance
Release Date: April 26, 2016
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / ibooks / Google Play
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 26, 2016
Carrigan O’Malley has always known her arranged marriage would be more about power and prestige than passion. But after one taste of the hard-bodied, whiskey-voiced James Halloran, she’s ruined for anyone else. Too bad James and his family are enemy number 1.
Hallorans vs. O’Malleys—that’s how it’s always been. James should be thinking more about how to expand his family’s empire instead of how silky Carrigan’s skin is against his and how he can next get her into his bed. Those are dangerous thoughts. But not nearly as dangerous as he’ll be if he can’t get what he wants: Carrigan by his side for the rest of their lives.
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REVIEW: THE WEDDING PACT is the second installment in Katee Robert’s contemporary, adult THE O’MALLEY’S erotic, romance series focusing on three warring underground families of Boston’s Irish mob. This is Carrigan O’Malley, and James Halloran’s story line-a forbidden romance between two people whose families are on the brink of war. THE WEDDING PACT can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Carrigan and James) THE WEDDING PACT follows Carrigan as she has been given thirty days to choose a prospective husband from her father’s list of potential business partners-all of whom want something from the arrangement other than a possible wife. What ensues are Carrigan’s attempts to abide by her father’s wishes while secretly meeting the man with whom she has fallen in love. THE WEDDING PACT is another romance focusing on the forbidden relationship between ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
James Halloran is the new head of the Halloran crime family, and a man who is not on the welcome list at the O’Malley residence. His relationship with Carrigan is about to initiate a war between the Irish families. Carrigan will soon find herself a virtual prisoner of a man who is determined to end James Hallorans’s life, and her father denies all responsibility for his daughter’s future happiness.
The relationship between Carrigan and James began under less than comforting circumstances when our heroine is held prisoner by Jame’s family and father. James and Carrigan’s attraction to one another is immediate although the knowledge that their relationship is forbidden amps up the angst and anxiety of their clandestine meetings. The $ex scenes are intimate and seductive.
The secondary and supporting characters include most if not all members of the O’Malley, Halloran, and Sheridan families in the Boston Irish crime syndicate including Teague and Callista (The Marriage Contract #1) who are preparing for their official wedding ceremony. We are witness to family dysfunction and the fight between family members for power and control.
Like the previous story line (The Marriage Contract), and because the premise focuses on the Irish Boston mafia, there is some violence, blood shed, and death, but mostly behind the scenes, implied or toned down in presentation. There are moments of heartbreaking betrayal; loss of life; family secrets, and expressions of love. The premise is exhilarating; the characters are dynamic and charismatic; the romance is a struggle towards a happily ever after. Sometimes family is not about blood but about the person you love.
Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley
Reviewed by Sandy
But then she walked into the quiet little pub where he was waiting and he realized he hadn’t been wrong the first time. There were faint bruises beneath her eyes, like she’d been sleeping even less than he had, and she held herself like a woman who’d been beaten for the first time. He was on his feet before he made a conscious decision to move. “Who hurt you?”
“No one.”
“Don’t play that martyr bullshit with me, Carrigan. Who the fuck put that look on your face?” She’d gone through hell and back because of him and it hadn’t put that haunted expression in her green eyes. He clenched his fists, trying and failing to get control of his temper. She wasn’t his to protect. Hell, even if she was, he had a pretty shitty track record of keeping people in his care safe. There was no reason why she’d be any different.
Except that he wanted her to be different.
She brushed past him, drawing his attention to her clothing. “What the hell are you wearing?”
Carrigan spun and glared. “I don’t need your shit right now.”
“You called me, lovely, so my shit is exactly what you’re going to get.” She looked like an angel—one that had had its wings clipped. He wasn’t sure what gave him that impression, but the long white dress was opposite of everything he’d found the woman to be in the short time they’d known each other. She was wild and impulsive and free. She wasn’t…this virginal almost-bride. He didn’t like the change. He didn’t like it one bit. “Sit your ass down. I’ll get us drinks, and then you’re telling me what the fuck is going on.”
“Don’t hold your breath on that.”
He wouldn’t have to. She might be prickly as all get out, but she wanted to talk. She wouldn’t have called him otherwise. The bartender met him halfway, a nervous little mouse of a guy. James made an effort to speak softly because the man looked half a second from pissing himself at the idea of a Halloran in his bar. “Whiskey for me. Dirty martini for the lady.”
He made his way back to where Carrigan had picked a booth. Ignoring the empty side, he slid in next to her.
The bartender appeared with their drinks, and James waited for him to scurry away before he spoke again. “Talk to me. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“No one can help me.”
The raw pain in her voice made him want to comfort her, but that was one skill James had never learned. Maybe if his mother had lived…But there was no room in this world for “what if” and “maybe.” So he did the one thing that he knew how to do. The single thing guaranteed to distract her.
He kissed her.
Carrigan went rigid for half a second, but he waited, his lips on hers, and let her choose. That hesitation was all it took for her to melt, turning to fire in his arms. He wanted to haul her against him, to let this feeling consume him until none of the bullshit mattered anymore. Right now, in this moment, there was only her. They could be the last two people in the world for all he gave a fuck. Hell, part of him hoped they were. As her tongue stroked his, a small, treacherous thought wormed into his brain and took root.
With this woman by my side, I’d be content to let the rest of the world burn.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Katee Robert, learned to tell stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her favorites then were the rather epic adventures of The Three Bears, but at age twelve she discovered romance novels and never looked back.
Though she dabbled in writing, life got in the way—as it often does—and she spent a few years traveling, living in both Philadelphia and Germany. In between traveling and raising her two wee ones, she had the crazy idea that she’d like to write a book and try to get published.
Her first novel was an epic fantasy that, God willing, will never see the light of day. From there, she dabbled in YA and horror, before finally finding speculative romance. Because, really, who wouldn’t want to write entire books about the smoking-hot relationships between two people?
She now spends her time—when not lost in Far Reach worlds—playing imaginary games with her wee ones, writing, ogling men, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
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